Printing press



1959 J. w. ROCKEFELLER, JR 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS 8 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 23, 195"! Oct. 27, 1959 J. wROCKEFELLER, JR 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS Filed Dec. 23, 1957 8 Sheets-Sheet 2 QMJMV Oct. 27, 1959J: w. ROCKEFELLER, JR 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS Filed Dec. 23, 1957 8 Sheets-Sheet 3 $1527 WZMkFf/H J5:

Oct. 27, 1959 J. w. ROCKEFELLER, Jl 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS Filed Dec. 25, 1957 a Sheets-Sheet 4 'sMW 011%. 27, 1959J. w. ROCKEFELLER, JR 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS Filed Dec. 23, 1957 8 Sheets-Sheet 5 Oct. 27, 1959 J. w.ROCKEFELLER, JR 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS a Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Dec. 23, 1957 Oct. 27, 1959 J. w.ROCKEFELLER, JR 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS Filed Dec. 23, 1957 8 Sheets-Sheet 7 HOV.A.C.

Oct. 27, 1959 J. w. ROCKEFELLER, JR 2,909,992

PRINTING PRESS Filed Dec. 23, 1957 a Sheets-Sheet a niteci States atn2,909,992 PRINTING PRESS J o'hu W. Rockefeller, Jr., Short Hills, N.J.,assignor to *Columbiau Art Works, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation ofWisconsin 7 Application December 23, 1957, Serial No. 704,693

4 Claims. (Cl. 101-76) This invention relates to the printing art andhas as its purpose to provide a printing press especially adapted forthe printing of such items as daily calendar pads and dated couponbooks, asfor instance, Christmas Club savings books and the like,wherein successive leaves bear printed indicia, including dates, whichare not necessarily consecutive on successive leaves.

Heretofore in the printing of such work, it was neces sary to print allof the required number of each of the individual leaves of the completepad or book before the complete .pad or book could be made up. Althoughthe presses used for this purpose usually were large enough to enablemore than one of the individual leaves to be printed with eachimpression, the full supply of all of the leaves required for the entirejob lot had to be completed before the pads or coupon books could bemade up, and before the pads or books could be completed the printedsheets had to be cut into separate leaves, and the thus separated leaveshad to be collated. The disadvantage of this past practice is obvious.Itrequired predetermining the total number of pads or books to beproduced and it entailed many repeated set-ups of the press to print thecomplete job.

With a view toward overcoming this disadvantage and giving the printerfar greater flexibility in the printing of such work as ,herecontemplated, thepresent invention has as its object to provide a presswith a plurality of changeable printing faces which are automaticallychanged with each impression or stroke of the press, and wherein theselection and grouping of the printing faces is governed by aprogramming element or device, so that by operating the press in cycles,complete calendar pads, coupon books, or the like, are delivered by thepress with each complete cycle of operation thereof.

More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide a pressof the character described wherein a plurality of movable type carryingunits are provided, each of which has a series of printing faces thereonto be individually brought into printing position upon proper indexingthereof, and wherein theindexing of the type carrying units is under thecontrol of and governed by a programming element or device.

Another object of this invention is to provide a press of the characterdescribed, which is so designed and constructed that, by operating thesame in cycles, each of predetermined duration, complete articles suchas dated coupon books and daily calendar pads are delivered by the pressat .the completion of each cycle of operation thereof.

With the aboveand other objects in view, which will appear asthetdescription proceeds, this invention resides in the novelconstruction, combination and arrangement of parts substantially ashereinafter described and more particularly defined by the appendedclaims, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodimentof the hereindisclosed invention may be made as come within the scope ofthe claims.

The accompanying drawings illustrate one complete example of thephysical embodiment of the invention constructed according to the bestmode so far devised for the practical application of the principlesthereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a daily calendar pad, which is one ofthe items that may be economically and expeditiously printed with thepress of this invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a coupon book, the printing of whichis also'facilitated by this invention;

Figure 3 diagrammatically illustrates the complete printing press ofthis invention;

Figure 4 is a perspective view ofthe printing head, or loosely, platecylinder of this invention, and which as will appear from this View,comprises three separate type carrying units or wheels, namely, a day ofthe week wheel; a day of the month wheel; and a month of the year wheel;I

Figure 5 is a cross sectional view through the printing head illustratedin Figure 4, showing particularly the manner in which the day of theweek wheel is indexed;

Figure 6is a view similar to Figure 5 but illustrating the manner inwhich the day of the month wheel is indexed;

Figure 7 is, again, a view similar to Figure 5, but illustrating themanner in which the month of the year wheel is indexed;

Figure 8-is a detail cross sectional-view through the main supportingshaft of the printing head and through the hub of the month oftheyearwheel to illustrate one form of detent that may be used toreleasably hold the individual wheels in their indexed positions;

Figure 9 is-a perspective view illustrating one form of programmingelement which maybe used to control the operation of the press;

Figure l0 is a view diagrammatically illustrating the manner in whichthe programming element of Figure 9 controls the indexing mechanism;

Figure 11 is a perspective view of an alternative or modified form ofprogramming element;

Figure 12 is an enlarged fragmentary view with parts broken away and insection, illustrating a detail of the programming element shown inFigure '11 and Figures 13, 14 and-15 are similar detail sectional viewsthrough the rim-of the drum shown in Figure 12, at difierent locations,the first of which is at the plane of the line 1313 in Figure 12.

Referring now particularly to the accompanying drawings in which likenumerals indicate like parts throughout the several views, the numeral16 indicates generally a calendar pad of the conventional type whereineach sheet or leaf bears diiferent indicia. As brought out hereinbefore,it was the practice in the past to print the entire number of eachof'the individual leaves of the pad, required to fill a given order,before the pad could be made up. By co ntrast, this invention permitsall of the successive leaves-of a single pad to be printed dur ing eachcomplete cycle of the press so that each cycle of the press produces acomplete pad, and, of course, through the simple expedient ofmultiplying the number of printing heads with which the press isequipped, several pads can be completely printed and finished with eachcomplete cycle of the press.

Though it is perhaps unnecessary, it should be noted that in calendarpads of the type here under consideration, each-leaf thereof isimprinted with the name of the day of the week, the number of day of themonth, the month of the year, and, in addition, a complete monthlycalendar.

Although the invention was developed primarily for the printing ofcalendar pads such as that illustrated in Figure 1, it is equallyadvantageous in the printing of such other items as coupon books, likethe book 17 shown in Figure 2. Such coupon books are used, for instance,in Christmas Club savings accounts and usually have successive leavesthereof. imprinted with indicia including dates which arenot'necessarily consecutive on successive leaves.

In general, the printing press of this invention com- 1 inafterdescribed. Thus, by controlling the positions of the masks with respectto the fixed stroke of the pawls, the

angle through which eachr-type carrying unit or wheel prises a printinghead designated generally by the nuand, to obviate the need for largeindexing increments and still enable all of the wheels to have the sameeffective diameter, the day of the week wheel has thirtyfive facesrepresenting five weeks. This multiplication of printing faces on theday of the week wheel also has the advantage of equalizing the wearthereon with that of the other wheels.

The day of the month wheel, likewise has separate printing faces,delineated with the number of the days of the month and hence there arethirty-one such faces; and the month of .the year wheel 21 has twelveseparate faces, each delineated with the name of one month and the year,and preferably also the complete calendar for its respective month.

A detent 23 such as that shown in Figure 8, is prw vided for each of thethree type carrying units or wheels, to releasably hold the same withone of its printing faces facing downward and coplanar with one of eachof the other two units so that one printing face of each unit is alwaysin printing position. The detent 23 may be simply a spring urged plungercarried by the shaft 22 to engage in one of a circle of notches 24 inthe hub of the wheel, and obviously the number of such notches in eachwheel corresponds to the number of printing faces on the wheel.

Each of the three separate type carrying units or wheels has a ratchetwheel fixed to one side thereof, the ratchet wheels for the respectivetype carrying units being desig nated 19', and 21'; and the number ofteeth in each of these ratchet wheels corresponds to the number ofprinting faces on its respective type carrying unit or wheel. Theseratchet wheels 19', 20', and 21' form part of the indexing mechanism bywhich the type carrying units are periodically advanced as required toeffect the desired sequence of combinations of type.

To advance the ratchet wheels and thus index their respective typecarrying units, pawls 25, 26, and 27 are provided. These pawls arepivoted to the outer ends of fingers 28, 29, and 30, respectively, allof which are fixed to a shaft 31 which extends lengthwise across theprinting head and is, in turn, carried by a pair of arms 32 journalledupon the main supporting shaft 22. Thus, by rocking the arms 32 aboutthe shaft 22 any one or more of the type carrying units or wheels may beindexed to bring another combination of printing faces into printingposition, the combination depending upon which of the pawls operativelyengages or engage the ratchet wheels.

Engagement of the pawls with their respective ratchet wheels iscontrolled by masks 33, 34, and 35. These masks are rotatably mounted onthe shaft 22 and respectively overlie the ratchet wheels 19, 20 and 21',with the peripheries of the masks in position to hold the pawls fromengaging between the teeth of the ratchet wheels for all or part of thearcuate stroke of the pawls, depending upon the positions of the masks;

The arcuate stroke of the pawls has fixed limits and is produced byswinging the arms 32 about the shaft 22 through a predetermined angle,in a manner to be here;

is advanced with each stroke of the press is readily controlled. Anysuitable means may be employed to rotate the masks about the mainsupporting shaft and thus determine their positions. For instance,solenoids 36, 37, 37' and 38 may be provided for this purpose. Thesolenoid 36 has its armature connected with the mask 33; the solenoids37 and 37' have their armatures connected with the mask 34; and thesolenoid 38 has its armature connected with the mask 35. All of thesolenoids are fixedly mounted with respect to the stationary mainsupporting shaft 22 so that, upon energization, thereof, their armaturesswing the masks through predetermined angles.

The energization of the solenoids is under the control of, and isgoverned by, a programming element, indicated generally by the numeral39. This programming element may be in the form of a tape 40 (seeFigures 3, 9 and 10) movable between a common contact bar 41 and aplurality of contact fingers 42, 43, 44 and 45, to control the closureof circuits by which the solenoids are energized. The tape 40 isincrementally advanced with each stroke of the press and may simply haveholes 40 located to permit closure of the contacts whenrneeded to effectthe desired printing sequence. The manner in which this is done will nodoubt be clear from Figures 9 and 10.

An alternate form of master control or programming element is shown inFigures 11 to 15, inclusive. Here, a large wheel 46 the rim portion ofwhich is of insulating material, has conductor bars 47 embedded in itssurface. All of these conductor bars are electrically connected to aring 41 which may be considered the counterpart of the common contact41. As the wheel is incrementally advanced, as by a pawl (not shown)engaging in ratchet teeth formed on the ring 41', these conductor bars47 engage stationary contacts 42', 43', 44', and 45 which are connectedinto the circuits of the solenoids as in Figure 10, to close thesecircuits as required to produce the desired results.

Although, in the practical application of the invention, a speciallydesigned press most likely would be employed, for purposes ofillustration, the invention has been shown in Figure 3 in conjunctionwith a conventional check printing press wherein the printing head isconstrained to rectilinear up and down motion above a platten 49 tocause the printing faces then in printing position to coact with theplatten and produce a printing impression upon the stock on the platten.However, in this case the stock is in the form of a web W instead of asuccession of separate sheets.

The web W is intermittently advanced with each stroke of the press, andat the delivery end of its travel the web is cut by a knife or cut-offunit 50, into separate leaves which are gathered in proper successioninto a pile P.

Since the general press structure forms no part of this invention, ithas not been illustrated, suffice it to say that as in the conventionalcheck printing type press, the printing head 18 is inside an inkingmechanism comprising a cylinder C interrupted at the bottom to exposethe type faces in printing position, and rollers R mounted to rotateabout and roll across the surface of the cylinder and across the exposedtype faces to properly ink the same before each impression.

Up and down motion is imparted to the entire printing head assembly by acrank shaft 51 having axially spaced crank pins 51 (only one of which isshown) each of which is connected by a link or rod 52 with one end ofthe shaft 22, or at least with the frame (not shown) in which the shaftis mounted. Thus, each revolution of the crank shaft brings the printingfaces in printing position into printing coaction with the impres-"retracted. This may be 'done'hy-geaiing such-as that tion is reached,one of the interruptions in the gear 53 allows the segment 54 to turnfreely and be retracted by a spring 55 to its fullline position, thetiming, of course, being such that the indexing of the type carryingunits or wheels by the pawls, occurs between impressions.

By the same token, the intermittent advance of the programming elementmust be properly coordinated with the periodicity of the printingstrokes, and this is achieved by having the tape 40 trained over andmeshed with a sprocket wheel 56 which is incrementally advanced witheach stroke of the press, as by a finger 57 projecting down from theconnecting rod or link 52, and arranged to transmit an increment ofrotation to the sprocket wheel 56 through a bell crank and pawl andratchet mecha- Operation The operation of thepress will be described-inconjunction with the printing of a calendar pad such as that illustratedin Figure 1.

Since each cycle of press operation produces at least one completecalendar, it follows that at the start of the cycle, the three typecarrying units, or wheels 19, 20, and 21, will bein their positions atwhich the combination of printing indicia in printing position willcorrespond to the first day of the year, as for instance, Tuesday, Jan.1, 1957. will be in its position at which the month of January is inprinting position; the day of the'month wheel will be in its position atwhich its printing face bearing the numeral 1 is in printing position;and the day of the week wheel will be in the position at which the nameof the first day of the year (Tuesday) will be in printing position. I

Between the first impression and the next, the day of the week wheel 19and the day of the month wheel 20 are each advanced one increment. Thisresults from the fact that the mask of each of these two wheels isnormally so positioned that it uncovers only one tooth of its respectiveratchet wheel lying within the stroke of the associated pawl. Thisoperation is repeated after each impression until the entire month ofJanuary is accounted for, and it will be noted that during each of thethirty-one strokes of the press required to complete the month ofJanuary, the mask 35 of the month of the year wheel 21 remains in aposition at which it prevents engagement of its associated pawl with theratchet wheel of this unit.

Upon completion of the thirty-first impression, the master control orprogramming element has moved to its position at which the contact 45engages the common contact 41 to thus effect energization of solenoid 38which is operatively connected with the mask 35 for the month of theyear wheel. Such energization of the solenoid 38 swings the mask 35counterclockwise far enough to uncover the last covered tooth of itsratchet wheel in time for the associated pawl 27 to engage this toothand advance the wheel 21 one step. This brings the February printingface into printing position and, since there are thirty-one faces on theday of the month wheel, this wheel will be in its position at which itsnumber one face will be in printing position. The day of the week wheel19 will automatically likewise be in its proper position, since the daysof the week continue in their regular order regardless of the changingmonths.

Throughout the printing of the month of February the procedure continuesas explained, but, obviously, since Thus, the month of the year wheelthe month or February has a change must 'beniade in the day of the monthwheel after twenty-eight impressions. For the three normal years,thi'smeans that the day of the month wheel must be advanced four stepsto bring the number one face thereoninto printing position during thetime that the month of 'the'year wheel is indexed to bring its Marchface into printing position. This operation is againcontrolled by theprogramming element and is done by energizing the solenoid 37. Theenergization of the solenoid 3'7, of course, results from the fact thatthe programming element has moved to its position at'which contact '43is permitted to make electrical connection with the commoncontact 41.- t

The armature of the solenoid 37 is connected with the mask 34 through aunidirectional coupling 60 consisting of a pin fixed to the armature andreceived in an'arcuate slot in the mask (see Figure '6). Since thecoupling 60 is "close to the axis of the'shaft 22 about which the masksswing, the stroke of the armature of the solenoid 37 is sufiicient topull the mask 34 back far enough to uncover four-teeth ofit's associatedratchet wheel and, accordingly, the pawl drops into that tooth whichwill bring the wheel 20 to its position at which its number one printingface'is in printing position.

In view of the fact that the connection between the armature of thesolenoid 37 with .the mask 34 must be unidirectional as will behereinafter pointed out, a separate spring 61 is provided to project thearmature to its extended position and also hold the mask 34 in itsnormal position.

T o accommodate the leap year condition when February has twenty-ninedays, so that the advance of the day of the month wheel at the end ofFebruary is only three steps, the connection 60 between the armature ofthe solenoid 37 and the mask 34 is changed to the socalled leap yearslot 62, which being farther out from the center of rotation, will bringabout a lesser degree of rotation on the partof the mask, despite thefact that the stroke of the solenoid armature is the same.

March being a thirty-one day month the procedure 'will be the same forthe printing of its complement of days as was explained in connectionwith the printingof the January calendar.

At the end of April, however, since it has but thirty days, the day ofthe month wheel 24) must be advanced two steps rather than the customaryone and, for this purpose, the master control or programming element,effects energization of the solenoid 37 by allowing contact 44 to engagethe common contact 41. With energization of the solenoid 37, the mask 34is swung a distance sufficient to uncover one more tooth of itsassociated ratchet wheel. The indexing stroke of the pawls thus movesthe day'of the month wheel two spaces to thereby bring the number oneprinting face thereof into printing 'posit-ion.

For the rest of the cycle, the successive monthly operations will bereadily understood from the preceding description, but it should benoted that, when the full year has been printed and the cycle completed,the day or" the week wheel must remain stationary during the nextindexing operation to assure having the first of the year begin on thecorrect day. To illustrate, the 1st of January 1957, is a Tuesday, andthe 31st day of December is also a Tuesday. Hence, in order for thefirst impression of the next cycle to show January 1st being '7 solenoid36 to prevent any engagement of its pawl with its associated ratchetwheel.

For the printing of leap years, the solenoid 36 is moved to its dottedline position shown in Figure 5, and its armature is connected to themask 33 at 63. Consequently, energization of the solenoid 36 now rocksthe mask 33 counterclockwise to uncover another'five teeth and therebybring the day of the week wheel to its proper position. To illustrate,the 1st of January, 1956, was a Sunday, but because of the additionalday in February of this leap year (1956), the last day of the year was aMonday. To have the cycle start properly the day of the week wheel inthis case would have to be in a position at which one of its Sundayfaces was in printing po- .sition, and this is best done with thestructure here provided by advancing the wheel six positions.

As noted hereinbefore, the connections between the armatures of thesolenoids 37 with the mask 34 are unidirectional. ,This is necessitatedby the fact that two separate solenoids act independently of one anotherupon the same mask. It is also for this reason that the mask 34 and thearmatures of the solenoids 37 and 37 are yieldingly held in their normalpositions by an external spring 61.

In the case of the solenoids 36 and 38, thespring by which the masks andthe solenoid armatures are held in normal positions may be incorporatedin the solenoids, as indicated for instance at 64.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, it will be, readily apparent to those skilled in this art thatthis invention provides a far greater degree of flexibility in theprinting of such work as calendar pads and dated coupon books than hasheretofore been possible, and that, although the invention has beendisclosed in conjunction with a web type printing operation, it shouldbe understood that it is equally adaptable to a sheet fed press.

What is claimed as my invention is:

l. A press for cyclically printing such articles as complete dailycalendar pads and coupon books which are comprised of a predeterminednumber of dated leaves bearing printed indicia including dates which arenot necessarily consecutive on successive leaves, comprising: meansproviding an impression surface on which stock to be printed issupported; a plurality of rotatable type carriers each having a seriesof different printing faces arranged circumferentially about itsperiphery and concentrically to its axis of rotation; means rotatablymounting said type carriers for rotation about their respective axes andin such positions that one printing face of each of said carriers isalways in printing position facing the impression surface; means toperiodically effect relative motion between said impression surface andall of said type carriers to simultaneously cause the printing facesthen in printing position to coact wtih the impression surface andthereby periodically produce printing impressions; power driven pawl andratchet indexing means to individually index each type carrier andthereby bring another of its printing faces into printing position, thepa'wls of said indexing means being constrained to swing about the axesof their respective type carriers; power means to oscillate all of thepawls through the same predetermined angle with each printingimpression, which angle is great enough to advance the type carrier withthe greatest number of printing faces a plurality of increments; a maskfor each pawl rotatable about the axis of its respective type carrier tocontrol the operativeness of the pawl; a movable programming elementseparate and remote from the press; means to incrementally advance theprogramming element one step with each printing impression; andelectrically responsive means governed bysaid programming element andoperatively connected with said masks to control the positions of themasks and thereby govern the time at which a type carrier is advancedbyits pawl and also thenumber of increments the carrier is advanced by itspawl.

2. A press for cyclically printing such articles as complete dailycalendar pads and coupon books which are comprised of a predeterminednumber of dated leaves bearing printed indicia including dates which arenot necessarily consecutive on successive leaves, comprising: meansproviding an impression surface on which stock to be printed issupported; a plurality of rotatable type carriers each having a seriesof different printing faces arranged circumferentially about itsperiphery and concentrically to its axis of rotation; means rotatablymounting said type carriers for rotation about their respective axes andin such positions that one printing face of each of said carriers isalways in printing position facing the impression surface; means toperiodically eifect'relative motion between said impression surface andall of said type carriers to simultaneously cause the printing facesthen in printing position to coact with the impression surface andthereby periodically produce printing impressions; power means toindividually index each type carrier and thereby bring another of itsprinting faces into printing position; a rotatable drum havingelectrical contacts on its periphery; stationary contactors cooperablewith said drum carried contacts to close electrical control circuits assaid drum is incrementally rotated;

means to incrementally advance the drum one step with each printingimpression; and electrically responsive means rendered operative by theclosure of said control circuits to activate said power means and effectindexing of the type carriers in accordance with the arrangement of thecontacts on the drum.

3, The press of claim 1 further characterized by the fact that saidprogramming element comprises a rotatable drumhaving electrical contactson its periphery, and stationary contacts cooperable therewith to closeelectric control circuits as said drum is incrementally rotated; and bythe fact that the control means for the indexing means includes controlcircuits having said contacts connected therewith. 1

4. The press of claim 1 but wherein the programming element comprises alongitudinally movable tape and aligned contacts at opposite sides ofthe tape and normallyheldout of engagement by the tape, and means on thetape to provide for circuit closing engagement of said contacts atpredetermined positions of the tape; and wherein the control means forthe indexing means includes control circuits having said contactsconnected therein.

' References Cited in the file of this patent 2 UNITED STATES PATENTS1,282,173 Besaw Oct. 22, 1918 1,821,360 Reinhardt Sept. 1, 19311,947,893 Wheelbarger Feb. 20, 1934 2,101,435 Lang Dec. 7, 19372,366,300 Wahl Ian. 2, 1945 2,451,045, Potts n Oct. 12, 1948 2,556,560Smith June 12, 1951 r 2,641,997 Butterfield June 16, 1952 2,698,075 LuhnDec. 28, 1954 Gustafsom May 6, 1958 way M

